In order to produce microelectronic assemblies, semiconductor components such as silicon chips for example, which can also be applied as flip-chips, are mounted on support substrates which may comprise an antenna, or on other semiconductor components which may again be silicon chips. For such mounting of the semiconductor components, use is often made of contact adhesives in order both to fix the semiconductor component and at the same time provide an electrical contact between connection points of the chip and of the support substrate or of a further chip. The contact adhesives or solders used for this are usually cured by means of thermode units at an increased temperature and under the application of pressure.
Conventionally, thermode devices which are used for this, as known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,882, have a heating body on their underside, which heating body can be displaced upwards and downwards along the vertical in order to apply pressure to or release the components to be connected and the adhesives arranged there between during a heat transfer process. Such thermode devices which have a single thermode are often arranged on a ram. The thermodes then have to be acted upon individually by individual pressure and temperature parameters. Such an actuation process which is directed at an individual thermode requires a complex design which is expensive to produce since a plurality of such thermodes are arranged in a common connecting device.
Such individual thermode devices which are combined to form a connecting device may be arranged next to one another with a minimum distance between them which is defined by the dimensions of the guide elements that hold the individual thermodes or the heating elements which are arranged displaceably therein. Since such individual thermode devices each have their own heating device, the external dimensions of such an individual thermode device are so large that it is not possible to arrange these individual thermode devices next to one another in parallel alignment with a distance of for example less than 10 mm.
As an alternative, thermode devices are known which are characterized in that a plurality of thermodes are arranged on the underside of a common plate, wherein such thermodes cannot be adjusted individually in terms of their pressure. As a result, there is necessarily a need for the plate to be placed for example on a support substrate containing a plurality of semiconductor components which are to be connected to the support substrate, without said plate being tilted or inclined, in order to prevent any damage being caused to those semiconductor components which are contacted first by a thermode in the case of an inclined plate.
In principle, due to the increasing miniaturization of the semiconductor components that have to be mounted during the application of pressure by a basic body, there is an increasing risk of damage to such small semiconductor components. This leads to malfunctions of the mounted semiconductor components.